Our dear friends over at A Voice for Men, the thought-leaders of the Glorious New Men’s Human Rights of The 21st Century Human Rights Movement With Girl Writes What (GNMHROT21CHRMWGWW) have been trying to introduce a new word into the vernacular, as part of their broad-based campaign for the betterment of human rights. That word? Rapetard.
While the portmanteau word has been floating around for some time, with assorted definitions, it took on its modern, human-rightsy definition in mid-April in a little-seen YouTube video by a fellow calling himself “Dick Magnum,” who defined it thusly:
An individual who, for reasons related to intellectual, emotional or moral deficits, cannot distinguish between questioning [the idea of] “rape culture” and supporting rape.
It was picked up in an AVFM post titled “Beware the Rapetard Society” about a week after that. Soon other AFVM writers seemed to forget Mr. Magnum’s careful definition, adopting it as their go-to epithet for feminists they don’t like. Which is pretty much all of them.
In a post having nothing to do with rape or rape culture, Paul Elam talked about “dumbing things down so that even a rapetard could understand.” In the comments to that post, AVFM contributor Dan Perrins joked about “rapetarded quote mining expedition[s].” And in a post yesterday, AVFM’s “Andy Bob” attacked Australian comedian Catherine Deveny for an assortment of alleged offenses against decency — including using the term “retard” – in a post that referred to her as a “rapetard” four times, including once in the title.
You might think that combining the word “rape” with an ableist slur –“tard” – and applying it liberally to feminist women would be a step backwards in the campaign for human rights, but apparently that’s old-fashioned twentieth century thinking on my part.
Now that it’s the Men’s Human Rights Movement, do they still call themselves MRAs? Or are they MHRAs now?
Oh god, “-tard” is going to get to be like “-gate,” isn’t it? Apply to random word, instant derogatory term!
Dammit, not that “Xgate” is a derogatory term, it’s the buzzword for a scandal.
I’d never make a good programmer — I keep forgetting to define my terms.
Ah I see the most important human rights movement of this century is still doing its best to keep to keep up that air of respectability we all know them for.
…every time I think that these guys have plumbed the depths and can’t surprise me, they pull some new level of fail out of their asses and come back with more. Ugh.
I refuse to call them MHRAs, as there’s not a whole lot human about them..
I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not.
I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not.
Oops, excuse the double post, dunno what happened there.
Has it occured to you that the reason that people don’t like you is that you’ve strayed from the basic message of economic equality to appoint yourselves as society’s thought police?
Those of us who do believe that questioning (that is, denying the existence of) rape culture supports rape can’t even claim the word because it’s derogatory to a group of people who have nothing to do with any of this.
Oh noes, people don’t like us! We’re not popular any more! Whatever shall we do?!
This isn’t high school, truthy.
You’ve also got to love* how they try to use neurally atypicial people (I’m guessing most people who commit suicide are depressed) when it suits them, and then tailor their insults against a different group of neurally atypical people.
MRAs: Human activists if you are a straightciswhitemalewithnodisabilities and also who hates everyone.
*and by love, I mean hate
Has it occurred to the MRA crowd that the reason nobody likes them is they think saying “rapetard” is something that needs defending?
Also lol at this guy thinking that us using our freedom of speech to point out that MRAs use shitty language that betrays exactly what they really think of people who are not them makes us “thought police.” I mean, we actually want ya’ll to think MORE.
Freedom of speech is only freedom if nobody ever criticizes what you say, duh.
Has it ever occurred to you that the reason people think MRAs are stupid is because they’re deeply fucking stupid?
Oh sure, it’s like how MRAs love to trot out the fact that fewer men than women attend college but ignore the fact that those figures are mostly due to very real problems faced by minority men, and MRAs are also racist.
To expand on that, nobody is telling MRAs they must stop using whatever derogatory euphemisms get their spiteful little rocks off. Only the government stepping in and telling you to shut up is actually a violation of your freedom of speech. We can, of course, refuse to listen to you when you’re being an asshole, block you from our webspaces, and use our own freedom of speech to tell you exactly what we think of you for the shitty things you say.
Me, personally, I actually rather enjoy when these “activists” use language that betrays their prejudices. It tells me exactly what I’m dealing with right away and that I don’t need to take them too seriously. It’s also ridiculously easy to point out what’s wrong with the MRA crowd when they’re spewing bile and throwing around euphemisms and talking about how shit fucking gives them boners or what have you.
Point is, guys, you’re the ones making yourselves look bad, and if you really wanna shake that hate movement charge and get some real work done, you could do to cut that shit out, just for starters.
I also wonder how many white men vs MoC are in prison and how much they are twisting that.
Dense as a box ‘o rocks, Truthy is.
I can’t prevent you from using slurs that help other and marginalize giant swaths of the human population, Preggo Punchout, but I can think you’re a gross person for doing it!
You know how activist groups can sometimes confuse a mainstream audience by using a lot of their internal lingo that’s not widely understood? MRAs are never going to have that problem, because the first time someone hears the term “rapetard,” they’re going to know exactly what the speaker is about. No ambiguity there, no sir.
is truthy preggo punch out?
I think it’s Tom Martin?
IdelogueReview is preggo-punchout, I thought?
I swear, we need to start keeping a playbook of common trolls….